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Unable to connect to Google Play

My son got a Hudl tablet for Christmas and has been very pleased with it but in the last couple of days he hasn’t been able to connect to Google Play to update or download Apps.

I had a look and was a bit confounded, he was right; it wouldn’t connect to the Play Store or to any Google service but it was connected to the internet via Wifi and I was able to use the web browser (Google Chrome) to surf the internet. Fortunately with a short search I found this article on Android Central

The answer is simple (at least in this case); Check the date and time on the device! The security settings on the Google services don’t like incorrect dates. I’m not sure why my son’s Hudl had the wrong date and time on it, it may be a hangover from a recent trip, but setting it to pick up the network time corrected the date and time instantly. I was immediately able to access the Play store, I didn’t even have to reboot.

The Hudl Tablet

A very brief review of the Hudl. We have been very pleased with them, they are very good value for money and seem able to cope with anything our boys have wanted to do. The only things I would comment on are;

The camera is ok but it doesn’t have a flash which limits its usefulness a bit.

It doesn’t work properly with older WEP wifi accees points. Annoyingly it doesn’t tell you this, it just sits there trying to connect and failing. Connecting to WPA or WPA2 is fine, but we have a second access point which is quite old and only supports WEP; the Hudl won’t connect to this.
We have had this problem with a Windows 8 laptop too so I think it is time for us to upgrade our (rather old) access point but I do hate being forced into an upgrade.